Journal tournament steeped in history

Jan 13 2010 by Tim Taylor, The Journal

GOLFERS only have to look at the honours board to see why Rockliffe Hall and Close House are taking so much pleasure in hosting The Journal Champion of Champions.

It is a tournament dripping in history which has always attracted the top amateur players in the North East.

The winner of the first event in 1968 was a Durham county player in Doug McClelland from the South Shields club.

McClelland went on to become the first North East golfer to play on the European Tour. There has been one gap of eight years when the event was taken off the fixture list until the editor of The Journal Brian Aitken brought it back in 2007.

In that year the winner was Sandy Twynholm from the Morpeth club, the Muirfield amateur course record holder and winner of a record seven Northumberland strokeplay titles.

Only two men have won the Champions two years running – Alnmouth’s Peter Deeble, twice the English Amateur champion, and Prudhoe’s Shaun Philipson.

1968: D McClelland (South Shields)

1969: G Clark (Whitley Bay)

1970: R Clark (South Moor)

1971: G Clark (Whitley Bay)

1972: D M Moffat (City of Newcastle)

1973: D George (Whickham)

1974: J W Ord (South Moor)

1975: J Angus (Warkworth)

1976: J Hayes (Gosforth)

1977: B H Skipper (Eaglescliffe)

1978: J Thomas (Ravensworth)

1979: P Deeble (Alnmouth)

1980: P Deeble (Alnmouth)

1981: C Davison (Eaglescliffe)

1982: N Dunn (Tyneside)

1983: J Barrett (Whickham)

1984: J Hayes (Gosforth)

1985: D Faulder (Blyth)

1986: A Robertson (Seaton Carew)

1987: S Neil (Durham City)

1988: C Davison (Eaglescliffe)

1989: G Pickup (Arcot Hall)

1990: I Donaldson (Arcot Hall)

1991: S Philipson (Prudhoe)

1992: S Philipson (Prudhoe)

1993: J Dryden (South Shields)

1994: C D Kilgour (Ravensworth)

1996: D Clark (Rothbury)

1997: R Wiggins (Ponteland)

1998: J E Handy (South Moor)

1999: M Nesbit (Westerhope)

2007: S Twynholm (Morpeth)

2008: S Lee (Newcastle United)

2009: P Ridden (City of Newcastle)